News from St. Michael's School

Main menu

Lower School

Post navigation

Order forms for the K-3 Fine Arts Night flowers are going home in today’s Eagle Express and are due in the School Office by Wednesday, April 5. Pre-ordered flowers will be available for pick-up at the Flower Stand from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on the night of the performance. A limited number of bouquets will be available for purchase the night of the show, so order early to guarantee yours! Additional forms are also available online via the school blog and in the School Office.

Playground time before and after lunch is an important time for our young students. On the playground they develop their social skills, exercise creativity as games are invented, and collaborate with each other in testing their physical abilities. During this time, we always want the children to be safe. Our parent/grandparent playground volunteers are so important in helping us to provide adequate supervision, allowing teachers to have a short break during the lunch period. Please consider volunteering one or two days a week to help on the playground. What a great way to get to know the kids and to meet other parents in the process. To volunteer, contact Richard and Alisa Reed: alisareedesq@yahoo.com. We appreciate it, and the students do as well.

“Ladies and gentleman! The circus is coming’ to town!” Our Lower School will be presenting “Circus Circus” on Friday evening, April 22, in the Student Center. Our performance will begin at 7:00 p.m. Please deliver your child to his or her classroom at 6:30 p.m. Classroom teachers will be there to greet them. Hip Hop dancers will go to Karise Allen’s 2A classroom.

On Thursday, April 21, each student will bring a costume bag home. Please have your child wear his or her costume to school on Friday evening for the performance.

Kindergarten

Khaki shorts for the boys, khaki skirts, skorts, or shorts for the girls, and the shirt with attached tie in the costume bag. (This is to be worn to school on Friday, the evening of the performance.)

First Grade

Khaki shorts for the boys, khaki skirts, skorts, or shorts for the girls, and the shirt with attached tie in the costume bag. (This is to be worn to school on Friday, the evening of the performance.)

Second Grade

Both boys and girls should wear khaki bottoms, shorts for the boys and skirts, sports or shorts for the girls. They will wear the colored shirt with attached tie in the costume bag. The girls will also wear the head band bow found in the bag. They will be clowns, and I have told them they can curl or spike their hair, and if you wish to spray crazy colors on it as they do on Crazy Hair Day–this will be fine. (This is to be worn to school on Friday, the evening of the performance.)

Third Grade

Each student will bring home a costume bag on Thursday containing one’s costume. (This is to be worn to school on Friday, the evening of the performance.)

Hip Hop

Dancers are to wear black shirts with black, long leggings or yoga pants and sneakers. Hip Hop boys will wear black, long athletic pants and a black shirt and sneakers.

The Hip Hop dancers will wear their costumes to school on Friday evening, and if they have other costumes to change into for Circus Circus, we will take care of this after they have done their Hip Hop dance.

As you enter the Circus tent you will see our Circus Flower Stand, where you can pick up your pre-ordered flowers or purchase a flower if you did not pre-order them.

We are very excited about our Lower School Fine Arts Night and look forward to a wonderful evening of entertainment, merriment, and fun!

Word of mouth continues to be our best marketing tool by a landslide because our parents are wonderful ambassadors for the school. Your positivity has a large impact on admissions and marketing. In addition to all the situations in which you find yourself sharing the good news of St. Michael’s, here are three ways you can reach out to your friends and the public on Facebook:

1. Share the occasional St. Michael’s Facebook post on your own timeline – Even just liking our posts will show up on some of your friends’ news feeds, but sharing them will reach a larger audience. Don’t overdo it though. Even just a monthly share can go a long way.

2. “RSVP” to our Facebook events such as the Musical and the Gala by saying that you are Going – Our events traditionally have very large attendance, but currently you wouldn’t know it by looking at the Facebook event! We don’t actually use this information as a formal RSVP, but once again, your Facebook friends will see that you are attending, and anyone visiting our Facebook page will see a better representation of our events’ popularity.

Common Sense, the national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids and families thrive in a world of digital media and technology, has recognized St. Michael’s School as a Common Sense Digital Citizenship Certified School. St. Michael’s is the first and currently the only school in Arizona to receive this recognition.

“We applaud the faculty and staff of St. Michael’s School for embracing digital citizenship as an important part of their students’ education,” said Rebecca Randall, vice president of education programs for Common Sense Education. “St. Michael’s deserves high praise for giving its students the foundational skills they need to compete and succeed in the 21st-century workplace and participate ethically in society at large.”

St. Michael’s began using Common Sense Education’s innovative and research-based digital citizenship resources when we implemented our 1:1 iPad program four years ago. The Common Sense curriculum was created in collaboration with Dr. Howard Gardner of the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The resources teach students, educators, and parents tangible skills related to Internet safety, protecting online reputations and personal privacy, managing online relationships, and respecting creative copyright. The free resources are currently used in more than 90,000 classrooms nationwide.

There are still spots available in this after-school class for girls in grades 3-5. The group meets on Mondays and Wednesdays.

The program inspires girls to be joyful, healthy, and confident using a fun, experience-based curriculum that creatively integrates running.

Girls on the Run is a transformational, physical activity-based, positive youth development program for girls in 3rd-5th grade. We teach life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons and running games. The program culminates with the girls being physically and emotionally prepared to complete a celebratory 5k running event. The goal of the program is to unleash confidence through accomplishment while establishing a lifetime appreciation of health and fitness.

There’s exciting news to share regarding the Fine Arts Night for our Primary students this spring. Our Lower School Fine Arts Night for K-3 students will move back to our home stage on the evening of Friday, April 17. With our Middle School students and faculty leaving campus for a week of class trips, this provides a golden opportunity for us to have a fun-filled week on campus with our Lower School students, creating a Fine Arts Night to remember for our young performers as they follow the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The stage will be set up early in the week, enabling more on-stage rehearsal experience for our students and onsite support from the classroom teachers in preparation for the event. At the same time, Creswell Courtyard will be transformed into a lovely Hamelin village area, complete with a flower stand and an ice cream parlor for a delightful treat following the red carpet performance. A side benefit for this change of venue will be better parking for our parents and a wonderful way to celebrate the evening after the performance with friends and families in a safe and lovely area. Mark your calendars now! More details will follow this spring.